West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
By Kristen Uppercue
Margaret Workman didn’t grow up dreaming of her future career as many young children do.
“Without any real career role models, I didn’t know to dream,” says Workman, a coal miner’s daughter. “But I loved to read, did very well in school and received so much positive feedback from my teachers that I wanted to be like them.”
In ninth grade, Workman’s teacher asked her where she wanted to attend college—a possibility that had never occurred to her. That day, she discovered her dream: to go to college and become a teacher.
“I worked from the time I was 15 years old and saved every dollar to use toward college,” she says. “I worked my way through undergrad and law school.”
During this time, she also became passionately involved in many social issues.
“So many young men I went to high school with were drafted, and some never came back,” she recalls. “Vietnam, civil rights, women’s rights—these all became a significant focus in the lives of young people in the 1960s.”
Workman attended Morris Harvey College her freshman year before transferring to West Virginia University (WVU), where she graduated in 1969 with a degree in political science and a minor in journalism. She then attended the WVU College of Law and earned her Juris Doctor in 1974. She loved the Capitol Hill atmosphere she experienced during a summer internship with the U.S. House of Representatives, so, after law school, she headed to Washington, D.C., and served as assistant counsel to the majority of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which was chaired by West Virginia Senator Jennings Randolph.
“I loved the work at the Senate, especially during the Watergate era, but after a few years I recognized that I had to make a decision on whether I wanted to make a career working in Congress or whether I wanted to get into the actual practice of law,” she says.
Workman returned to her hometown of Charleston, where she served as a law clerk for the seven judges of the Circuit Court of Kanawha County. In 1976, she took a leave of absence to travel the nation as an advance woman for Rosalyn Carter in Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign and later opened her own law firm. In 1981, she was elected as a circuit court judge—the youngest in the state at the time and only the second female circuit court judge elected in West Virginia.
Upon her election, she inherited the largest backlog of cases in the state. She held hearings six days a week, reduced the docket to the lowest in the circuit and conducted more jury trials than any other judge in West Virginia during that time period. She also visited every prison and secure juvenile correctional facility in West Virginia.
Prior to taking the bench, Workman was involved in many community and church activities. She helped found the Charleston Interdenominational Council on Social Concerns, Covenant House and Manna Meal. She was also a member of the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church and the Charleston Junior League, a leader in the West Virginia Friendship Force and a board member for the West Virginia Dance Theatre and Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council.
In 1988, Workman was elected to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, becoming the first woman to win a statewide election in West Virginia. She has since served as chief justice five times, where she fostered a close working relationship between the court system and domestic violence programs, visiting many shelters to learn how the court system could be more effective in addressing domestic violence.
She has had the opportunity to create and oversee several initiatives in her
administrative role to improve the court’s system. She formed the Broadwater Committee, now called the Court Improvement Committee, which made reforms in the court system’s response to children’s issues and spearheaded the development of rules governing child abuse and neglect cases. In her tenures as chief justice, Workman created the Commission on the Future of the Judiciary, Committee on Gender Fairness in the Courts, Fatality Review Team and Juvenile Justice Commission.
“These projects were aimed at making the court system more effective and responsive in the areas of abused and neglected children, juvenile law, domestic violence and gender fairness,” she says. “Serving as a judge for 31 years, this has been my life’s work. It has been an amazing opportunity to shape the law in West Virginia and create administrative initiatives that improve the judicial system, especially for children.”
In 2018, when several justices fell under scrutiny for overspending and lack of oversight, Workman relied on her spotless ethical record and strong body of work to fight for her position. Still, she had to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to be exonerated. Her leadership helped hold the court system together and restore respect for the judicial system.
Workman’s extensive service to the Mountain State is illustrated by her many commendations. She is a permanent member of the American Law Institute, an invitation that is extended only to those considered outstanding legal scholars. She holds honorary degrees from the University of Charleston, West Virginia State University and Shepherd University and has been the recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Award, West Virginia Florence Crittenton Award, YWCA Outstanding Women of Achievement Award, West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union’s Defending Democracy Award and West Virginia Citizens Action Group Award for Outstanding Public Service. She is a fellow of The West Virginia Bar Foundation, a West Virginia Civil Rights Day honoree and has been named the West Virginia Italian Festival Non-Italian Woman of the Year.
“I am proud to have played a role in the development of a court system more responsive to people in need, especially children, juveniles and victims of domestic violence, and one that provides everyone with fair and equal treatment,” she says.
Among her lifelong works of service, Workman established an endowment at the WVU College of Law to benefit the school’s children and family law clinic. After she retires at the end of this year, she plans to create living and ongoing memorials to two of her children who tragically passed away.
“I poured my heart and soul into being a mother, and losing my children has cast such a pall over my life,” she says. “Remembering them by finding ways to help others is now my only real purpose in life—that and spending a lot more time with my two granddaughters.”
